Month: April 2011

Jeffrey’s Twitter Updates for 2011-04-12

  • Time to pack everything away to change #Virgin trains. Did I hear anybody say refund? #
  • So, the train will be put out of service, so we will wait for the next #Virgin train in Preston (which will also be full). RRRRRRRRRR #
  • So, a Virgin Manager (sounds kinda funny like that!) came and made a temporary fix. The train is now moving, though rather slowly. #
  • OK, Virgin Trains, we are still broken down and just had a second one pass us. #WTF #
  • OK, the train crew just came by and offered me some wine. Hey, red wine, air conditioning, and wifi; could be worse. #
  • Goodness, serious problem with Virgin Train brakes. We need to be rescued by another engine from Preston. Seems will be delayed for hours? #
  • OK, the Virgin train has now stopped before Preston, something about a brake issue. Goodness, and all this with my having an empty glass! #
  • Eating a wonderful goat cheese and caramelized onion quiche with wild rice, quinoa, apricot, and pumpkin seed salad on the train to #Lancs #
  • I love taking fast trains through the British countryside, what with all the green fields dotted with sheep and cows. #
  • Nice timing, 17 minutes into my train toward #Lancaster it is beginning to rain. Hard to imagine I just ate outside in beautiful sunlight. #
  • I spent the day in London at the British Library and then had a lovely lunch at St. Pancras Station. Fantastic, sunny day. #

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Jeffrey’s Twitter Updates for 2011-04-11

  • So strange to see "United" on the planes that still have the #Continental logo. Alas, hope the latter knows what it is doing with this! #
  • Time to put all tech away and leave the airport lounge for my flight. London, here I come! #phdchat #
  • Just reached #InboxZero just in time to pack it all in for travel to #Lancs for some work with my cohort and supervisors this week #phdchat #
  • Worked all day preparing for travel tomorrow, and only get down to 4 inbox emails (missed #InboxZero goal). Good progress anyway! #phdchat #

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Actor-Network Theory: Next Steps

Having spoken to a number of colleagues using actor-network theory in their work, including Ailsa Haxell, Inger Mewburn, and Steve_JP, among others, I now believe I know enough about it to begin reading one of the significant texts in the theory, Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory, by Bruno Latour.

I have unsuccessfully tried to read this work several times in the past, though it uses a language that is somewhat different than common social science terminology and has heretofore baffled me. Speaking with colleagues, especially around our informal #phdchat, has been quite valuable in working my way through enough actor-network theory (ANT) that I proposed using this to inform my methodology in my doctoral thesis.

This text is one of the two books I am bringing with me as I head to Lancaster University this week for a residential week with some meetings with my supervisors. I expect to make enough sense of it along the way to talk a bit more about it in the near future, at least enough to articulate why I am proposing its use. While I wish John Law, one of the important voices in ANT, were still at Lancaster, he has moved on while leaving enough presence on the campus for there to still be an ANT sensibility present. Let’s see if we can continue to rally behind the banner!